. Let's hope they're not executed now.
Seriously.
There's a great Kiarostami short called, in English, Orderly/Disorderly, half of which is about children in school and the other half of which is about traffic. This looks like an outtake from the remake version.
Children are the antidote to any kind of uptightness. The mullahs can't come down on those kids. They're kids. Fucking mullahs.
4: They're not kids. They're girls.
I mean, shit; last week one of the moms on the playground scolded a six-year old girl for making fart noises under her arm--just like all the boys were doing--because it wasn't "ladylike." I hope the Iranian girls in that video have really understanding and cool parents, man.
I hate to sound like a broken record, but once again, the very dumbest of all the dumb things about our middle east policy is making a boogeyman/enemy out of the state that's culturally America's most natural ally. I hope to god we can have saner relations with Iran once we have a Democratic president.
BitchPhD: objectively pro-armpit farting.
I'm anti-armpit farting, but pro-hot dusky Iranian frottage.
I've always thought it spoke well of Iran that, if the US was going to foment a coup there in 54, which, you know, not so bright, they were going to have to bring it off using acrobats as the heavies. That sounds like an awesome country!
9, 10: Only for elementary school kids.
11: High school girls? They're only a few years away from armpit farts. Perv.
3: Wait, Kiarostami makes shorts? When I saw Taste of Cherry a couple years ago, he spent so much time just sitting in traffic that I wanted to off myself at the end.
He used to make shorts, back when he was working for pennies doing educational movies. His short about dental hygiene is hilarious. Almost of the movies of his I've seen have something to do with driving.
Fun fact: Kiarostami's first job was as a traffic cop.
Jackmormon you're like a one woman wikipedia. Does he have any favorite recipes? What's the population of his hometown?
There was a Kiarostami retrospective in town recently, and my honey caught all of it (and had managed to meet the man himself). The traffic cop factoid actually does have some salience, though. Seriously, the energy the guy puts into filming congestion patterns has got to be seen to be believed.
13: It's difficult to be virtuous when they're dry humping each other in the middle of 3rd period Algebra.
Also, there's high school girls and high school girls. 14 year olds? Pervy. 18 year olds? Merely a very bad idea. Also, I'm insufficiently far removed from being an appropriate age to date 18 year olds that it seems radically inappropriate (though it's quickly becoming time that I need to rethink that habit of thought).
You know, of all the stupid rightist canards, the one I hate most is that we're all collectively giving some kind of free pass to Islam. Screw that. I don't care if your name is Elder or al Hajj or Rinpoche or Monsignor, I absolutely refuse to live in accord with your fanciful ideas about some imaginary guy in the sky who's totally concerned with how many times I wank off or who I'm boinking. Fuck 'em in the ear, fuck 'em in the other ear. I hate religion. (This goes for you too, unassuming Dissenting clergy who go to anti-war marches.)
The free association of free individuals in a free society, everywhere, now! Nothing less will do.
19: I always suspected that Mitt Romney was posting under the"minneapolitan" handle.
Mankind will not be free until the last monarch is strangled with the guts of the last priest!
Whoops. My moderation slipped a little there.
Despite being a religious service-attender, I have not felt like 19 reflects many or enough leftists' views.
17 : so, my next question -- have you ever seen any of these shorts available on DVD? Amazon doesn't seem to be much help... but I figure that, now that I'm a few years older, maybe I would like Kiarostami a bit more. Or, if you only know of full-length A.K. movies on DVD -- would you recommend a particular one to start with, if I wanted to make myself a little mini-survey of his films?
More proof that the iron grip of the Mullahs is tenuous at best. I wonder how many Persian expats will relocate home upon regime change. My best guess, 5% tops.
I don't think that the shorts are available for home viewing. As for full-length movies, I really liked this one (sorry, the link is to a VHS version).
"I am Persian! Like the cat! Meow. Meow."
That's all I can think of now when I see Iranians doing ridiculous things. And this is a very, very ridiculous thing. It's pathetic that we should have to worry that a bunch of girls could get in real serious trouble for this kind of harmless naughty silliness.
I wish all these fundamentalists of all stripes would just chill out. I know that's stupid, but honestly that's all I think it would take to significantly improve the world.
I'm Persian! Like the cat! Meow. Meow.
it's so absurd that Iranians have this repressive regime because they are--with me, some mullahs and a few of my relatives excepted--a seriously good-time-having people.
Ever heard of the Irish? Or the Spanish, Polish, Italians, Greeks, Germans, Mexicans, Scottish . . . .
Everyone except the English, really. Oh, and the Swedes.
Well, some people consider swimming well a good time.